Jamie Samuelsen, co-host of the "Jamie and Stoney" show at 6 a.m. weekdays on WXYT-FM (97.1), blogs for freep.com. His opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the Detroit Free Press nor its writers. You can reach him at jamsam22@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @jamiesamuelsen.

Assess the Detroit Pistons’ hiring of Dwane Casey as coach and whatever-the-heck they’re doing with the front office.

It’s the smallest of small sample sizes, but it’s clearly the morsel of optimism that keeps this organization going.

Last season, the Pistons were 3-1 in the four games Blake Griffin, Reggie Jackson and Andre Drummond were all on the floor together.

I’ll take it one step further and tell you that’s a .750 winning percentage which, if you extrapolate it over 82 games, would have been the best in the Eastern Conference and second behind the Houston Rockets in the entire NBA. Granted, you could use a similar small statistical sample to say the Cincinnati Reds were 2-0 this week against the Detroit Tigers and are well on their way to a 162-0 season.

The fact of the matter is Jackson and Griffin were on the floor together for just 85 offensive possessions. It's impossible to draw conclusions from that. But they're sure to play together much more going forward.

I certainly don’t think the Pistons were one of the top teams in basketball last season had their big three played together and stayed healthy. I understand the cynicism towards the belief that either Jackson or Griffin can stay healthy for the majority of the season. But I also understand owner Tom Gores, senior adviser Ed Stefanski and new head coach Dwane Casey look at this roster and, if healthy, see enough talent to make noise in the Eastern Conference.

Is that unrealistic? Perhaps. But what else are the Pistons supposed to do? There is no undoing the Griffin trade and it sounds like nobody in the organization even wants to.

Casey cited Kennard, Johnson and Henry Ellenson (the Pistons' three most recent first-round draft picks) as important pieces going forward. Perhaps he really believes that. Perhaps he knows the Pistons are unlikely to add any impact players in the offseason and their version of “fresh faces” will consist of the three younger players and the returning Jon Leuer.

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There is anger and disenchantment towards the Pistons for a variety of reasons.

It’s directed at Gores. It’s directed at the 10-year drought between playoff victories.

And it’s directed at the fact it took more than two months from the end of the season for Gores to identify Stefanski and Casey as the men to lead this franchise forward. Even now, it’s unclear exactly what role Stefanski will fill in the organization but it seems like he’s going to be the general manager of the team without actually being the GM for the team.

A lot of times in sports when a team is struggling, the anger in the fan base either boils over or turns to apathy. There is obviously a ton of apathy towards the team right now. But if you’re reading this post, you haven’t given up on the club completely.

Chances are you’re angry. You want Gores to admit culpability. You want Mitchell or Booker on this roster instead of Kennard or Johnson. Very often, I hear fans say, “What’s the point? This team has a mediocre roster and no cap room. They’re doomed.”

That’s your attitude? That’s fine. The problem is Casey and Stefanski aren’t allowed to have that attitude. It’s their job to take what’s here and improve upon it. The bad trades, bad picks and bad contracts aren’t on them. Stan Van Gundy already paid for those with his job. It’s up to the new regime to make the best of what’s still around.

I’ve noticed this with Detroit Lions fans over the years. Sometimes it seems like they want the front office to throw up their hands and say, “We give up. We stink. We’ll never win. We’re sorry.” It doesn’t work that way.

Faces and names change. But the new faces and new names that come in try to make change. They can’t throw up their hands. They’re paid to make the impossible possible, or at the very least, make the difficult more probable.

Casey says the time is now. What choice does he have? He has two former All-Stars on his roster. He has two players making at least $20 million a season and a point guard that wins more games than he loses when he can actually stay healthy.

The Pistons aren’t as good as the Boston Celtics or Philadelphia 76ers. They’re not as good as Cleveland if LeBron James stays. And they’re still looking up at Toronto, unless the loss of Casey himself is some sort of shift in the conference power structure.

Stefanski and Casey can’t look at it as bleak. They have to make the best of it. If that doesn’t sound good to you, that’s your choice. They can only look at the most positive sample size that they can, albeit a small one, and hope to extrapolate it over 82 games.